Roseisle-News.com

The next few days we might have some light rain, hopefully rain followed by dry days with sunny spells for a week then hopefully more light rain. The daytime temperatures will vary between 17-19C degrees and nighttime temperatures around 10C degrees.

We have had some challenging times with the warm and sunny days these past weeks to cope with but we get what we get and work with the conditions, maybe with less success due to lack of water.

August and September are such a busy time in our garden, always on our to do list every two to three days is deadheading of the Roses, Buddleias, Dahlias, Cosmos and the flower borders. While I am in the flower borders I weed, while deadheading the plants that I don’t want any seed to fall from. That saves an extra trip! With the vegetables it is every three to four days that we pick the Broccoli, French Beans, Tomatoes, Sweetcorn and Courgette and then process the produce as we see fit, our freezers are reaching full capacity! The Plums are ready to pick and the Apples need to be stored somewhere dry and cool.

We have cut out the old Raspberry canes but still need to thin the individual plant to three canes for next year and tie those canes to the wire framework.

I have started to collect seed from the annual Poppies and there will be more seed to collect from other plants around the garden to sow. There are lots of selfseeded young plants in and around the borders to lift and pot on for next year, to fill any gaps or sell on our garden open days for charity. The Strawberries have runners which when rooted will get potted up to safeguard for future plants. There are one or two Salvias I love from which I will take cuttings and bring them on to bulk up that variety.

David has the patience to try and clear our pond from the Duckweed because every netful of scooped material has to be carefully checked and double-checked for the many young newts he catches and they have to be returned back to the pond, eventually he gives up until another day! Soon, before the leaves fall from the nearby trees we will net the pond over to prevent the leaves getting into the water.

The birds are finding enough food elsewhere as the seed we give them is wasted and lying on the ground, so for now we are not feeding any birdseed but still giving them the peanuts and fat balls until we get cooler nights, then we will start feeding them the seed again. We are putting dog food out for the hedgehog as we have come across signs that one is visiting our garden which would be so wonderful as we love those prickly friends dearly.

Our mini Flower meadows have done wonderfully this year but the proof of the pudding is, will the meadow return next year after we cut or pull the spent flowers in a few weeks time and let the seeds drop and leave it to nature?

We are thrilled to see the Butterflies come back these past two weeks or so after being absent throughout the summer, hopefully they will be able to develop in their cycle and we see them early next summer.

Maybe it is a good time to buy or order seeds and bulbs before suppliers run out of the stock we are after! One way or another our garden lifts our sprits as soon as we step into it to enjoy and discover nature’s wonders.